Photo by Sam Chandler
Mountain Brook City Council
The Mountain Brook City Council held a public work session Jan. 17 at City Hall.
The Mountain Brook City Council held a public work session Jan. 17 to discuss infrastructure and capital projects the city will need to finance in the next five to 10 years.
Mayor Stewart Welch, Finance Director Steve Boone, City Manager Sam Gaston, City Attorney Whit Colvin and all council members attended the meeting.
“We need to identify what’s coming down the pipe, how much it’s going to cost and how we’re going to pay for it,” Boone said.
The city has many projects on its radar, including a host of improvements at school athletic fields. Costs for some of those upgrades will be shared with Mountain Brook Schools.
Other projects include bridge replacements or repairs on Caldwell Mill Road, Old Brook Trail, Canterbury Road and Mountain Brook Parkway; sidewalk installations on Pine Ridge Road, Dunbarton Drive and Hagood Street; installation of a roundabout in Mountain Brook Village; and replacement of fire stations on Locksley Drive and Old Leeds Road.
Boone estimates the projects could cost around $20 million.
The city will likely take out a $5 million debt issue in the next year or two to begin paying for the work, Boone said. The council also is considering increasing the city's sales tax by up to 1% or implementing a garbage collection fee.
“We didn’t give a lot of lip service to that today,” Boone said of the garbage fee. “That’s an opportunity, but I don’t know that it’s going to go anywhere.”
Boone said a sales tax increase could come this year or next year, but he suspects it will happen sooner rather than later.
The group also briefly discussed implementing an occupational tax, but Councilman Billy Pritchard shot down that idea quickly.
“I am totally opposed and will vote no on an occupational tax,” he said.
Discussion at the work session also touched on the need for Mountain Brook to set up a funding model for projects even further down the road than those currently on the table.
“If we’re spending $2 million on a bridge in two years and it’s going to last 50 years, then we’ve got to come up with the money to start putting it back on an annual basis so that 50 years down the road the money’s in the bank for the next bridge,” Boone said.
